Tag Archives: Francisco de Goya

Mental illness in art

August 26, 2019

JMS Pearce Hull, England   Corridor in the Asylum. Vincent can Gogh. 1889. Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is often said that creative art is linked to eccentricity, sometimes bordering on madness. Examples abound of great musicians, writers, and artists who at some time in their lives were deranged and often committed to institutions for […]

El garrotillo: on diphtheria and Goya

November 30, 2018

Vicent Rodilla Valencia, Spain     Figure 1. El Garrotillo by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1808-1812). Private collection. Diphtheria is a bacterial infectious disease caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae that affects mostly children. Although by 2017 some 85% of infants worldwide have been vaccinated for DTP (diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis), some 19.9 million children remain unvaccinated.1 According to […]

Los Caprichos

October 4, 2018

De que mal morira (Of what ill will he die?)   This is engraving number 40 from the Los Caprichos series by Francisco de Goya, published in 1799 and showing a donkey as a doctor attending a dying man in his bed. The doctor wears a watch to count the patient’s pulse but not a stethoscope […]

Francisco de Goya: a portrait of illness

January 26, 2017

Trang Ngoc Diem Vu Rochester, Minnesota, United States Self-Portrait with Dr. Arrieta, 1820 Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes Minneapolis Institute of Arts The Ethel Morrison Van Derlip Fund Francisco de Goya’s Self-Portrait with Dr. Arrieta is a Romantic painting illustrating one of Goya’s most severe bouts of illness. The inscription beneath the scene reads, […]